"Liberian Girl" was the ninth single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 to be released from Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

's 1987 album Bad

Bad (album)

Bad is the seventh studio album by American songwriter and recording artist Michael Jackson. The album was released on August 31, 1987 by Epic/CBS Records, nearly five years after Jackson's previous studio album, Thriller, which went on to become the world's best-selling album...

. The song was written as early as 1983 and was among those considered for The Jacksons' Victory album. It was reworked and rewritten for Bad. The song was released as a single in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

The song starts with the Swahili language

Swahili language

Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...

 phrase "Naku Penda pia, Naku Taka pia, Mpenziwe!" (I love you too, I want you too, my love!), which was sung by a South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

n singer by the name of Letta Mbulu

Letta Mbulu

Letta Mbulu is a South African jazz singer born and raised in Soweto. She has been active since the 1960s, but left for the United States in 1965 due to Apartheid. In the U.S. she worked with Cannonball Adderley, David Axelrod and Harry Belafonte...

 (although the official language of Liberia

Liberia

Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...

 is English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, and Swahili is only commonly spoken on the opposite coast of Africa).

Chart performance

Chart (1989)	Peak position
Australian Singles Chart	50
Dutch Top 40 Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart, which started as the "Veronica Top 40", because the offshore radio station Radio Veronica was the first to introduce it. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the station was forced to stop broadcasting...	14
French Singles Chart	15
Irish Singles Chart Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured...	1
Swiss Singles Chart	12
UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...	13
Chart (2009)	Peak position
French Digital Singles Chart	34
Swiss Singles Chart	36
UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...	86

Music video

Directed by Jim Yukich, the video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

 for the song featured many of Jackson's celebrity friends who wait on the set to film the music video for "Liberian Girl", only to discover he was filming them all along. As named in the closing titles, featured in the video are:

• Beverly Johnson
  Beverly Johnson
  Beverly Johnson is an American model, actress, and businesswoman. She made history when she rose to fame as the first black model to appear on the cover of American Vogue in 1974...
  
  
• Malcolm-Jamal Warner
  Malcolm-Jamal Warner
  Malcolm-Jamal Warner is an American television actor, film director, and musician. He is best known for his role as Theo Huxtable on the long-running NBC sitcom The Cosby Show. Additionally, he appeared as Malcolm McGee on the UPN sitcom Malcolm & Eddie. He is currently starring as Dr...
  
  
• Sherman Hemsley
  Sherman Hemsley
  Sherman Alexander Hemsley is an American actor, most famous for his role as George Jefferson on the CBS television series All in the Family and The Jeffersons, and as Deacon Ernest Frye on the NBC series Amen. He also played Earl Sinclair's horrifying boss, a Triceratops named B.P...
  
  
• Brigitte Nielsen
  Brigitte Nielsen
  Brigitte Nielsen is a Danish model, actress, musician and reality television personality who began her career modelling for Greg Gorman and Helmut Newton and several years later made appearances in the 1985 films Red Sonja and Rocky IV and is also known for her marriage to Sylvester Stallone...
  
  
• Paula Abdul
  Paula Abdul
  Paula Julie Abdul is an American singer-songwriter, dancer, choreographer, actress and television personality.In the 1980s, Abdul rose from cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers to highly sought-after choreographer at the height of the music video era before scoring a string of pop music-R&B hits...
  
  
• Carl Weathers
  Carl Weathers
  Carl Weathers is an American actor, as well as former professional football player in the United States and Canada. He is best known for playing Apollo Creed in the Rocky series of films...
  
  
• Whoopi Goldberg
  Whoopi Goldberg
  Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...
  
  
• Quincy Jones
  Quincy Jones
  Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
  
  
• Jackie Collins
  Jackie Collins
  Jacqueline Jill "Jackie" Collins is an English novelist and former actress. She is the younger sister of actress Joan Collins. She has written 28 novels, all of which have appeared on the New York Times bestsellers list. In total, her books have sold over 400 million copies and have been...
  
  
• Amy Irving
  Amy Irving
  Amy Davis Irving is an American actress, known for her roles in the films Crossing Delancey, The Fury, Carrie, and Yentl as well as acclaimed roles on Broadway and Off-Broadway. She has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, and has won an Obie award...
  
  
• Jasmine Guy
  Jasmine Guy
  Jasmine Guy is an American actress, singer and dancer. She is best known for her starring role as Whitley Gilbert in the television sitcom A Different World.-Biography:...
  
  
• Rosanna Arquette
  Rosanna Arquette
  Rosanna Lauren Arquette is an American actress, film director, and producer.-Early life:Arquette was born in New York City, the daughter of Brenda Olivia "Mardi" , an actress, poet, theater operator, activist, acting teacher, and therapist, and Lewis Arquette, an actor and director. Her paternal...
  
  
• Lou Diamond Phillips
  Lou Diamond Phillips
  Lou Diamond Phillips is an American film, television, and stage actor and director. His breakthrough came when he starred in the film La Bamba. He earned a supporting actor Golden Globe Award nomination for his role in Stand and Deliver and a Tony Award nomination for his role in The King and I...
  
  
• Olivia Newton-John
  Olivia Newton-John
  Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
  
  
• John Travolta
  John Travolta
  John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
  
  
• Corey Feldman
  Corey Feldman
  Corey Scott Feldman is an American film and television actor. He became known during the 1980s, with roles in the Hollywood films Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, The Goonies, Stand by Me, The Lost Boys, License to Drive, Dream a Little Dream, Gremlins and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...
  
  
• Steven Spielberg
  Steven Spielberg
  Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
  
  
• Debbie Gibson
• Rick Schroder
  Rick Schroder
  Richard Bartlett "Rick" Schroder, Jr. is an American actor and film director.He debuted in the 1979 hit film The Champ, going on to become a child star on the sitcom Silver Spoons...
  
  
• Blair Underwood
  Blair Underwood
  Blair Underwood is an American television and film actor. He is perhaps best known as headstrong attorney Jonathan Rollins from the NBC legal drama L.A. Law, a role he portrayed for seven years. He has gained critical acclaim throughout his career, receiving numerous Golden Globe Award...
  
  
• "Weird Al" Yankovic
  "Weird Al" Yankovic
  Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
  
  
• Bubbles
  Bubbles (chimpanzee)
  Bubbles is a common chimpanzee, known for being the one-time pet of American recording artist Michael Jackson. The entertainer adopted the young primate from a Texas research facility in the early 1980s. The singer's attachment to the animal led to media mockery and, among other factors, to a...
  
  
• Suzanne Somers
  Suzanne Somers
  Suzanne Somers is an American actress, author, singer and businesswoman, known for her television roles as Chrissy Snow on Three's Company and as Carol Lambert on Step by Step....
  
  
• Lou Ferrigno
  Lou Ferrigno
  Louis Jude "Lou" Ferrigno is an American actor, fitness trainer/consultant, and retired professional bodybuilder. As a bodybuilder, Ferrigno won an IFBB Mr. America title and two consecutive IFBB Mr. Universe titles, and appeared in the bodybuilding documentary Pumping Iron...
  
  
• Don King and "Son"
• Mayim Bialik
  Mayim Bialik
  Mayim Hoya Bialik is an American actress who also holds a PhD in neuroscience.Her most notable TV roles have been as Blossom Russo on NBC's Blossom and as Amy Farrah Fowler on CBS's The Big Bang Theory.-Early life:...
  
  
• Virginia Madsen
  Virginia Madsen
  Virginia Madsen is an American actress and documentary film producer. She came to fame during the 1980s, having appeared in several films aimed at a teenage audience...
  
  
• David Copperfield
  David Copperfield (illusionist)
  David Copperfield is an Emmy Award-winning American illusionist, and was described by Forbes as the most commercially successful magician in history. Copperfield's network specials have been nominated for 38 Emmy Awards and won a total of 21 Emmys...
  
  
• Billy Dee Williams
  Billy Dee Williams
  William December "Billy Dee" Williams, Jr. is an American actor, artist, singer, and writer.-Early life:Williams was born in New York City, New York, the son of Loretta...
  
  
• Richard
  Richard Dreyfuss
  Richard Stephen Dreyfuss is an American actor best known for starring in a number of film, television, and theater roles since the late 1960s, including the films American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goodbye Girl, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Stakeout, Always, What About...
  
   and Emily Dreyfuss
• Danny Glover
  Danny Glover
  Danny Lebern Glover is an American actor, film director, and political activist. Glover is perhaps best known for his role as Detective Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film franchise.-Early life:...
  
  
• Olivia Hussey
  Olivia Hussey
  Olivia Hussey is an Argentinian actress who became famous for her role as Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli's Academy Award-winning 1968 film version of Romeo and Juliet. For this role she won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actress as well as the David di Donatello for best actress...
  
  
• Dan Aykroyd
  Dan Aykroyd
  Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM is a Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.-Early...
  
  
• Steve Guttenberg
  Steve Guttenberg
  Steven Robert "Steve" Guttenberg is an American actor and comedian. He became well known during the 1980s, after a series of starring roles in major Hollywood films, including Cocoon, Three Men and a Baby, Police Academy, and Short Circuit.-Early life:Guttenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York, the...
  
  

The music video of the song was included on the video albums: HIStory on Film, Volume II

HIStory on Film, Volume II

HIStory on Film, Volume II is a collection of music videos released by Michael Jackson in 1997 released by Sony Music Video Enterprises.-Side one:# Programme Start# HIStory Teaser Trailer - 3:58# "Billie Jean" - 5:05# "Beat It" - 4:56...

and Vision

Michael Jackson's Vision

Michael Jackson's Vision is a deluxe DVD box set released on November 22, 2010. It includes three DVDs, featuring 4.5 hours of content of 42 music videos by Michael Jackson, with newly restored color and remastered audio. Michael referred to each of these productions as a "short film" and not a...

.

Track listing

1. Liberian Girl (Edit) - 3:40
2. Girlfriend - 3:05

• 12"

1. Liberian Girl (Edit) - 3:40
2. Get on the Floor - 4:44
3. Girlfriend - 3:05

• CD Single:

1. Liberian Girl (Edit) - 3:40
2. Girlfriend - 3:05
3. The Lady In My Life - 5:00
4. Get On The Floor - 4:44

• Unreleased DualDisc

CD Side:

1. "Liberian Girl" - 3:40

DVD Side:

1. "Liberian Girl (Edit)" (Audio)
2. "Liberian Girl" (Video)

Covers and sampling

"Liberian Girl" has been sampled and covered by various musicians:

• In 1990, Chicago
  Chicago
  Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
  
  -based jazz musician Chico Freeman
  Chico Freeman
  Chico Freeman is a modern jazz tenor saxophonist and trumpeter and son of jazz saxophonist Von Freeman...
  
   recorded an instrumental jazz version for his album You'll Know When You Get There.
• In 1996, hip hop
  Hip hop music
  Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
  
   artist MC Lyte
  MC Lyte
  MC Lyte is an American rapper who first gained fame in the late-1980s becoming the first solo female rapper to release a full album with 1988's critically acclaimed Lyte as a Rock.-Early life:...
  
   sampled the song on "Keep On, Keepin' On
  Keep On, Keepin' On
  "Keep On, Keepin' On" is a single by MC Lyte featuring Xscape from the Sunset Park soundtrack. The song was produced and co-written by Jermaine Dupri and sampled Michael Jackson's 1989 single "Liberian Girl". It later appeared on MC Lyte's fifth studio album, Bad As I Wanna B,The song became MC...
  
  " featuring R&B group Xscape
  Xscape (band)
  Xscape, was a female American R&B group that originally started out as a quintet and then became a quartet. The group had a string of hit songs during the 1990s...
  
  . The song released first on the soundtrack for Sunset Park
  Sunset Park (soundtrack)
  - Tracks :#High 'Til I Die - 2Pac#Motherless Child - Ghostface Killah feat. Raekwon#Just Doggin - Tha Dogg Pound#Back at You - Mobb Deep#Are You Ready - Aaliyah#It's Alright - Groove Theory...
  
   and later on MC Lyte's fifth album Bad As I Wanna B
  Bad As I Wanna B
  Bad as I Wanna B is the fifth album released by MC Lyte. It was released on August 27, 1996 for EastWest Records and was produced by Jermaine Dupri, Rashad Smith, Carl-So-Lowe, R. Kelly, Goldenboy, MC Lyte and Nat Robinson. Bad as I Wanna B did fairly well, peaking at #59 on the Billboard 200 and...
  
  .
• In 1999, American
  United States
  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
  
   singer Jennifer Lopez
  Jennifer Lopez
  Jennifer Lynn Lopez is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, and fashion designer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller...
  
  's song "If You Had My Love
  If You Had My Love
  "If You Had My Love" is a song by American recording artist and actress Jennifer Lopez, taken from her debut studio album, On the 6 . Released in 1999, the single peaked at number one in the United States, becoming Lopez's first number-one single; it also peaked at number four in the United Kingdom...
  
  " contains a sample from "Liberian Girl" only on a remix called 'Dark Child Master Mix'
• In 2001, the song was sampled on the late American rapper 2Pac's songs "Letter 2 My Unborn
  Letter 2 My Unborn
  "Letter 2 My Unborn" is a song by Tupac Shakur, released as a posthumous single from his album Until the End of Time in 2001. The accompanying music video received moderate airplay though it was less successful than the lead single from the album, the title track...
  
  ", on his fourth posthumous album Until the End of Time
  Until the End of Time
  -Disc Two:Unused TracksKomradz - by Johnny J, unused original from "All Eyez On Me".Watch Ya Mouth- By Q.D.III, unused original from "The Don Killumiinati: The 7Day Theory".-Album chart positions:-Samples:*"Ballad of a Dead Soulja"...
  
  and "The Thug in Me" (Original Version).
• In 2007, Canadian rapper Roi Heenok
  Roi Heenok
  Heenok Beauséjour , better known by his stage name Roi Heenok is a Canadian rapper of Haitian descent, from Montreal, Quebec....
  
   sampled the song on his track "La Coka Coka", in French and released on his album Cocaïno Rap Musique: Volume 1.

Personnel

• Written and composed by Michael Jackson
• Produced by Quincy Jones
• Co-Produced by Michael Jackson
• Michael Jackson: Solo and background vocals
• John Robinson: Drums
• Douglas Getschal: Drum programming
• Paulinho Da Costa: Percussion
• Christopher Currell: Synclavier
• John Barnes, Michael Boddicker, David Paich, Larry Williams: Synthesizers
• Steve Porcaro: Synthesizer programming
• Letta Mbulu: Swahili chant
• Rhythm arrangement by Michael Jackson, John Barnes and Quincy Jones
• Synthesizer arrangement by Jerry Hey, John Barnes and Quincy Jones
• Vocal arrangement by Michael Jackson and John Barnes
• Swahili chant arrangement by Caiphus Semenya

External links

• Official video on a website from Sony BMG
  Sony BMG Music Entertainment
  Sony BMG Music Entertainment was a recorded music company, which was a 50–50 joint venture between the Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann AG...